Few signs an election is underway in Quebec’s Far North

North of the 55th parallel, there are few indications that a five-party race is underway to elect Quebec’s next government. In several Nunavik villages, not a single campaign sign was on display just over three weeks before the election.

In the last Quebec general election, in 2022, voter turnout in the Ungava riding was 30.21 per cent — far below the provincial average of 66.15 per cent.

The northern riding is the largest in the province, covering an area larger than Alberta. In addition to Nunavik, the riding includes about twenty sparsely populated municipalities, including Chibougamau, Chapais, and the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region.

The average person in the riding is under 33 years old and more than two thirds of the people who live in the riding identify as Indigenous, according to riding data compiled by Élections Québec.

Several residents approached by The Canadian Press during a recent trip to Nunavik said they were unaware that a provincial campaign was underway and that they don’t generally follow provincial politics.

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All five major parties have officially registered a candidate to represent the riding.

The absence of campaign signs does not mean there’s no campaigning in the north, Liberal candidate Sandrine Rioux said in an email. To reach voters, the party plans to run advertisements on northern radio stations, as does Québec solidaire and the Parti Québécois.

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The Parti Québécois pointed out that its candidate, Sonia Caron, has met with a number of organizations in Nunavik, particularly in the health and education fields.

“Ms. Caron has already established strong ties with northern stakeholders, which allows her to adapt her methods for reaching voters, particularly by phone or video conference,” wrote a party spokesperson by email.

Unlike Caron, who was nominated in April, Québec solidaire candidate Antoine Côté was named late. For that reason, and due to the size of the riding, no campaign signs have been posted, the party explained in an email. However, Côté is still campaigning, it added.

“We also have a lot of content on our various pages to try to get people interested in our ideas, given that more and more people are consuming political content online,” a party spokesperson said.

The Liberal party also plans to run targeted digital campaigns on Facebook and Instagram that are adapted to the issues facing the riding’s various communities.

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“The realities of Jamésie, Eeyou Istchee, and Nunavik are different, and our communication strategies must reflect that as well,” Rioux wrote. She has pledged that her first official trip, if elected, will be to Kuujjuaq in Nunavik.

Requests made to the Conservative Party and the Coalition Avenir Québec regarding its candidates went unanswered.

Numbers compiled over the past two decades reflect how Indigenous communities in Quebec have largely turned away from participating in Quebec elections.

In May, the province’s electoral oversight agency, Élections Québec, published data showing the average voter turnout for provincial elections in Indigenous communities in Quebec was at about 19 per cent since 2007, compared to close to 68 per cent provincewide. These rates vary from community to community.

Despite lower voter turnout, some residents expressed deep concern about the issues facing their communities.

One Friday morning in early September, about 20 residents gathered at the community centre in Puvirnituq, a village of roughly 2,000 people in Nunavik, chatting and enjoying sunshine, which was unusually warm for the time of year.

Residents say climate change and housing are among the concerns for the local population.

According to the 2021 census, Nunavik had just over 14,000 residents, with a natural growth rate of three to four times higher than the Quebec average.

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A spokesperson for Élections Québec said recently that the agency isn’t campaigning to increase voter participation in Indigenous communities, but is focusing instead on making sure that voting is accessible.

Those efforts include sending out trilingual documents with voting information in French, English and local languages to post office boxes in Inuit, Cree and Naskapi communities, spokesperson Julie St-Arnaud-Drolet said.